Fridae

Anticipating high demand for marriage licenses for same-sex couples during Gay Pride Week, the city of Toronto has announced that they will open the City Clerk's office at the main City Hall location this weekend from 11am - 5pm on Saturday and Sunday. The city expects to issue marriage licenses to a large number of same-sex couples taking advantage of the newfound freedom to marry, reports Gayapolis.

In a statement, the city stated: "This weekend's special operating hours are expected to be a one-time event, in recognition of Pride Week, which begins today, and recent Court decisions regarding same-sex marriage." "No appointment is necessary," it added.

Pride Toronto, which organises the gay pride festival in Toronto, has also announced that they will reserve a special space in the parade to allow newly married couples to march or ride in the parade in recognition of the court decision.

By last Friday, the city had issued 175 marriage licenses to same-sex couples - 10 of them Americans - since the Ontario appeals court ruled two weeks ago that marriage rights should be extended.

The federal cabinet decided last week not to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court, but to begin drafting legislation to open same-sex marriage throughout Canada. As Canada has no marriage residency requirements, the new policy opens the way for same-sex couples from the United States and around the world to travel here to marry.

On June 17, the Canadian cabinet approved a new national policy to open marriage to gay couples, making Canada to become the third country to allow same-sex unions. The policy, which includes unions between men and between women, have become effective immediately in Ontario, Canada's most populous province.

The move was the result of the province's highest court ruling - a week prior to the change of policy - that current federal marriage laws are discriminatory and therefore unconstitutional.

Last month, the British Columbia Court of Appeal ruled that the prohibition of same-sex marriage was unconstitutional and the Quebec Superior Court last year ruled similarly. They gave the federal government until mid-2004 to change its marriage rules. Since then legislative panels have been studying ways to put the rulings into effect.

Although Vermont has enacted a law providing for civil unions, which allow gay couples many of the benefits of marriage, same-sex marriage is not permitted in any American state.

The new same-sex marriage policy is likely to have a much larger impact in the US unlike the same-sex marriage policies in the Netherlands and Belgium as Canada has no restrictions and Canadian marriage licenses have always been accepted.

Gay advocates say same-sex couples married in Canada claiming rights and privileges will likely present new legal challenges in at least some US states. Although same-sex marriages are allowed in the Netherlands and Belgium, Dutch laws impose a long residency requirement while Belgium will only allow marriages of foreign couples from countries that already allow such unions.

While acknowledging that the march to full acceptance would be slow, Lavi Soloway, a Canadian-born lawyer and founder of the Lesbian and Gay Immigration Rights Task Force in New York said Canada's marriage reform would go a long way to changing public perceptions and attitudes in the US.

"What this presents for American couples is an opportunity to easily enter into a legal marriage and come back to the United States with a powerful tool to break down the remaining discrimination here," he said.